MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, 85 



obtained in our neighbourhood:— Two Crossbills, (Loxia curvirostra,) an Osprey, fl'andion 

 halixtus) and a Roller, (fioraeiaa garrula.) — John Bbaim, Sleights Bridge, Whitby, Dec. I6th. 1852. 



The Ftiss Moth, (Ccrura vinula.) — During the summer of 1850, a great many of the cater- 

 pillars of the Puss Moth were on a tree before my window. I used to stand beside the tree 

 to watch their motions. One evening I began to tease one of them with a stalk of grass, and it 

 became enraged. I then took my penknife and continued to touch its sides, and it seized the point 

 of the knife in its jaws when held to its head. I still pereisted in vexing it, till at last by 

 some means or other, it squirted a quantity api^arcntly of water in its own defence. Has any 

 one observed anything similar, or is it a common means of defence? — "W. Macduff, Banff, 

 NDvember 23rd., 1853. 



The Scotch Argus Butterfly, (Hipparchia Blandina.) — The occurrence of this insect does not 

 appear at any time to have been either plentiful or widely distributed over this northern 

 country ; but the late remarkably fine summer seems to have given it a range beyond its usual 

 limits; for in Glencripsdale, on the banks of Loch Sunart, in the West Highlands, I had no 

 difficulty in the month of June in catching just as many as I wished, — G. Donaldson, Glasgow, 

 November 4th., 1852. 



Agrotis Pascuea. — I doubt if this insect will any longer be considered a rarity, as an intelligent 

 and most indefatigable travelling collector from London, whilst staying here captured off sugar 

 on Cliffe-hill some eighty or ninety beautiful specimens between the 10th. and 15th. of Sep- 

 tember last; they usually paid his sugar a visit from one to two o'clock in the morning. He 

 also took thirteen fine specimens of Gharmas cespitis in the same locality. — W. C. Unwin, 

 St. Ann's, Lewes, November 11th., 1852. 



Chaerocampa Celerio. — A tolerably good specimen of this very rare species was shown me to 

 identify by the same collector, which he obtained from a labouring man, who found it in the 

 brooks at Laudport, near this town. He described it being quite perfect, and I should judge 

 just emerged from the pupa state, but he had kept it several days under a tumbler glass, 

 which had caused its wings and thorax to be rubbed.— Idem. 



Chserocampa Celerio near Bristol. — Thinking a brief notice of the capture of a rare moth may 

 not prove uninteresting to the lovers of entomology, especially as it adds a fresh locality to those 

 given in Westwood, I imagined that you Avould like to insert, in "The Naturalist," that a 

 specimen of the Sharp- winged Hawk Moth, Cheer ocmnjm celerio, was captured in a house at Baptist 

 Mills, in the immediate vicinity of this city, on the 27th. of August last, when it was put alive 

 into a box, and on the 30th. handed over to Mr. C. Harding, in whose possession it remains. 

 From being imprisoned in a box, most probably of too small dimensions, for three days, it unfor- 

 tunately had the tips of its wings, which is one of the characteristics of the genus, seriously 

 damaged, otherwise it is in a tolerable state of preservation. — J. N. Duck. Kingsdown, Bristol, 

 1852. 



Carabus nitens. — Two specimens of this beautiful beetle have been got, one on the road to 

 the Cove about two miles from Aberdeen, and the other in the parish of Dunis, by Mr. Martin, 

 who presented it to myself; and also another addition to our native coleoptera, which was got 

 by me about two years ago, at Upper Banchoy in a pool, the Dytiscus circumflexus, the only one 

 that has been obtained to my knowledge.— James Taylor, Pitmixton, February, 10th., 1853. 



Gigantic Sunflower. — I reared in the garden here this summer, a Sunflower of the following 

 dimensions: — In height it was eleven feet five inches; the largest part of the stem was about 

 eight inches round. The flower, which was taken off at the end of September, for the purpose 

 of preserving the seed, measured fourteen inches in diameter, and weighed five pounds four 

 ounces.— FmmF Bedingfield, Ditchingham Hall, November 10th., 1852. 



Tall Star of Bethlehem, (Ornithogalum pyi-enaicum.) — This rare Lily- wort is found plentifully 

 in the Church field, at Fishbourne, a little village about a mile west of Chichester. Its 

 flowers, which are of a greenish white, are produced in June; its seed is generally ripe in 

 August; it grows from eighteen inches to three feet high; its bulbs are rather larger than 

 those of a good-sized Tulip, and are about a foot beneath the surface of the soil. Tlie leaves 

 are all radical, linear, about four inches long, smooth, channelled, and very soon wither. — 

 C. W. Crocker, Chichester, November, 1852. 



